


cabin of love (and everything else that comes after)

by Vio14



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen, Multi, Some comedy, Some hurt/comfort, aphrodite kids love, casual use of homophobic slur, really the aphrodite kids need more love, this is my love for them written in a story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-08
Updated: 2014-08-08
Packaged: 2018-02-12 08:43:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2102922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vio14/pseuds/Vio14
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Piper McLean might have gotten more than she bargained for when she became counselor of the Aphrodite cabin.</p><p>(In which there are fights, the eternal drama of the Aphrodite kids, realizations, anger, and then, love.)</p><p>Oneshot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	cabin of love (and everything else that comes after)

**Author's Note:**

> As a note. I'm sorry for the jarring shift from past tense to present tense at an early point in the story, but it's because the past tense was in something of a flashback, while everything else happens currently. And if I screwed up some technical stuff, I'm sorry for that. I haven't read the series in a while. Also, I'm Canadian, so if there's different spellings for some words, you know why.
> 
> Next, before people disagree with my portrayal of Piper, she does look down on her siblings and sees them as shallow for being concerned with their looks and having silly crushes, sometimes even on the same guy as her. Trust me, while I can't provide you with an example right now, you'll find a lot of examples in the Lost Hero. Just read the book again if you don't agree. And while she does get a bit better by the end of the book (a bit) she stills thinks of them in a bad light, and that should change. While the Aphrodite cabin can certainly be shallow at times, it doesn't define their whole personalities, because people are people! We all have our flaws.
> 
> And so I hope you enjoy, read and review, and leave your constructive criticism behind! Thank you.
> 
> This fic will also be posted at fanfiction.net under the same username, so if you'd like to read it there as well, go ahead!
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Heroes of Olympus series. They belong to Rick Riordan.

   
  
 **< 3**  
  
  
Okay, so. Piper might have been a little too eager and naive when she'd jumped into the position of counselor of Cabin Ten because; a) she was a little in over her head, and b) she might not have been as mature and responsible as she thought. Surprise, at least to her. Leo must of been having a good laugh.  
  
  
  
 **< 3**  
  
  
  
 _Previously, in the head of Piper "Beauty Queen" Mclean-  
_  
  
  
 **why she'd be one of the greatest counselors Cabin Ten had ever had (a list written and edited by, you guessed it, the current cabin counselor herself)**  
  
1\. After her quest, Piper had never felt more confident. She was ready to fucking lead, and while she wasn't much older than her siblings, they were- a little bit air-headed and much too concerned with their looks. Piper, in comparison, was much, much more down to earth, and couldn't care less about her looks (the tangled, choppy hair and braids proved that.)  
  
2\. Between her and Drew? She was definitely the better option, thank you very much.  
  
3\. She now knew the true definition of love and beauty (although Drew would very much disagree with this, she was not the senior counselor. Ha.)  
  
4\. Hell, she'd seen counselors in action. She had attended summer camps before, after all, and while most of her learning experience had been watching the older teens try (and fail) to wrestle the younger, angry, spoiled white kids under control, she was sure she could handle anything of the sort if it came her way. And better, too.  
  
5\. Hey, if she was one of the Seven of the Prophecy, she could surely handle a cabin of kids. It wouldn't be that hard. Not as hard as people made handling a bunch of children of love sound. Demigods were known for their dramatic exaggerations- and, as well- understatements, but. Not important.  
  
  
  
 **< 3**  
  
  
  
The first moment wherein Piper realized she might not have been as prepared as she thought had been. About a week after she, Leo and Jason had arrived back at camp after their quest, maybe?  
  
Anyways, she'd returned from a playful basketball game with some other campers to find the cabin in a state of disarray. Various assorted items (makeup, shampoo, brushes, combs, clothes, even some pads here and there, you name it) littered the bubblegum pink floor, and in the middle of it was...  
  
She hated to admit it, but. A cat-fight.  
  
Her siblings were watching in awe from their bunks. To the left of her, although she didn't have a complete view of the girl, Drew Tanaka was lazily strewn across her bed, nibbling on a snack bar, smirking.  
  
 _Laugh as much as you want_ , Piper thought darkly, and a few other choice words that will not be repeated. She stepped into the middle of the fight and pushed the two girls apart. While it was never really noticed by their fellow half-bloods, Aphrodite kids were strong when you pushed them far enough. Stark example, right here.  
  
Piper gritted her teeth. "Knock it off!" she snapped, trying not to groan with the startling effort it took to keep her two siblings apart. "What the f-" she stopped, corrected herself. "What the Hades happened?" She'd never get used to saying that.  
  
One of the girls- Paige, if she remembered right- looked at her, face red, tear tracks trailing down her cheeks. "This  _bitch_ ," she snarled, emphasis on the b-word, "stole my boyfriend!"  
  
"You said you were over him!" the other girl- Amanda, screamed back. "Besides, you broke up with him a year ago!"  
  
"We still had a chance!" Paige shrieked, and so it continued.  
  
 _Oh_ , Piper thought dully,  _So that's why_. Her efforts to keep the girls apart became less strained as she increasingly became more apathetic.  
  
She sort of guessed it was a reason to be upset, but. She still didn't think it justified the mess they'd made, the hair they'd pulled out of each other's heads, and the marks that looked like they'd been left by claws more than nails- and was that blood- that marred both of the girls. Even if they were teenagers, especially teenagers that were daughters of Aphrodite, and somewhat melodramatic.  
  
Still in a somewhat dull daze of shock, without thinking, Piper said, "You could just have a threesome."  
  
It took her a second and the looks of horror on Paige and Amanda's faces for the realization of what she'd just said to slam in to her like a ton of bricks. "Fuck- I didn't mean- goddammit-!"  
  
"No!" both of the girls howled in unison. The rest of her siblings looked like they were torn between laughing or stuffing their faces into their pillows in second-hand embarrassment. Drew, on the other hand, had fallen off the bed in her hysteria and was slamming the ground with a fist as she laughed, too hard for any sound to come out.  
  
Piper's face filled with heat, and she slumped against the post of one of the bunks as the sounds of laughter filled her ears.  
  
 _Never again_.  
  
This was, unfortunately, the first incident of many.  
  
  
  
 **< 3**  
  
  
  
 _Now, in the head of Piper "Beauty Queen" McLean-_  
  
  
  
 **why she might be one of the worst counselors Cabin Ten had ever had (a list written and edited by, you guessed it, the current cabin counselor herself)**  
  
1\. Her inability to control herself. (refer back to what is now more widely known as "The threesome debacle" for a better and more amusing (to you only, assholes) explanation.  
  
2\. She couldn't even settle a fight between two twelve year-old girls over a poster of her father, of all the celebrities to choose from. Having volunteered for the same situation as those camp counselors from that summer years ago, Piper could now understand and empathize with their suffering.  
  
3\. While she had given a fantastic, if she did so say herself, speech on the meaning of love and beauty, she had, conveniently, at the time, forgotten about the uglier parts. Jealousy, envy, and thirsty and unstoppable lust, which she was now getting a taste of. (Thanks for the reminder, Drew.)  
  
4\. She can't even manage to correct her siblings' bad behaviour. The children of Aphrodite can be backstabbing, lying, conniving, and manipulative bastards when they want to, or if you get on their bad side. Example A; Paige and Amanda, who make their amends with sugary smiles and words dripping in poison. No one knows who's gonna be the first to strike or when, but someone will. And Piper won't even be able to prevent it.  
  
5\. She couldn't even think of a reasonable, morally correct resolution for her siblings' issues with themselves and each other, and their shallow personalities. Not without charmspeak, and that wasn't the right way to do it.  
  
  
  
 **< 3**  
  
  
  
Two months passed, along with many fights and rivalries.  
  
Piper only had a small amount of control over it, and only when she resorted to her charmspeak. And she was supposed to be the mediator between the Greeks and the Romans? Right.  
  
She couldn't even meditate between her own brothers and sisters.  
  
One particular evening, she and Drew are the only ones in the cabin. Everyone else is out, gossiping, giggling, whatever they do in their spare time. Piper has no idea, something she's slightly (more like very, though she won't admit it) ashamed of. She hasn't even tried to find out, only going off her own assumptions.  
  
"You know," Drew says eventually, breaking the silence that's been plaguing them for the last few minutes. "You could just do what I did."  
  
Piper sits up from where she'd been miserably lying (sulking) on her bunk, and glares at the Japanese girl. "Because that really worked." Sarcasm drips heavily from every word. Drew, being Drew, ignores it.  
  
"But it did," she points out. "You think any of this shit happened when I was in charge?" She turns back to the mirror she's been using to re-apply her makeup.  
  
"As amusing as it is," Drew continues, "It's kind of sad to watch." She shrugs. "You might as well just use charmspeak."  
  
Piper raises an eyebrow. "And be like you? No thank you," she says, and returns to her original position, a clear indication that she doesn't want to continue the conversation any longer. Again, Drew being Drew, she ignores the obvious body language.  
  
"It's not like you've been making any effort to stop it. For all your talk, you're not so above it yourself,  _Beauty Queen_." The nickname is spoken mockingly, and she knows that behind her back, Drew is sneering.  
  
Piper's cheeks flare in anger (shame) and she gets off her bed. "That's it," she snaps, "I've had enough of your bullshit." And if she slams the door behind her, well. She couldn't care less.  
  
The next day, a young eleven year-old girl is making them late for breakfast. "I can't find it," the girl whimpers, seconds away from a panic attack. Her name is Mariana, Piper remembers, and she says it out loud.  
  
"What's wrong?" She tries to sound soft, but she just sounds tired and irritated instead. Piper can't help it; she hadn't slept well last night.  
  
Her little sister turns wide, watery brown eyes on her. "I can't find it," Mariana whispers tearfully, "I can't find the concealer."  
  
"Concealer-?" Piper repeats incredulously, and examines Mariana more closely. She has a couple of pimples on her face, one zit, and. It's really not that big of a deal, especially for a little girl. Piper feels the annoyance that's been building up for weeks finally bubble to the surface.  
  
" _So what_?" she snaps, previous patience gone, if there even was any at all. "No one is going to care if you have a couple of pimples, alright? One day without hiding it isn't going to ruin your life."  
  
Their siblings are staring, silent. Tears fill Mariana's eyes, on the verge of spilling over, and inwardly, Piper groans. Oh, great. On the outside, she sighs, but before Piper can apologize, the girl climbs to her feet, long black bangs hiding her eyes from Piper's view.  
  
"Sorry," she says, almost inaudible, and with a quick wipe of her arm across her face, she's out of the cabin, the rest of the kids following.   
  
Piper tiredly rubs her eyes before leaving as well.  
  
Once they arrive, the other cabins notice their silence as well as their late appearance, but don't make any comments. For that, at least, Piper's grateful.  
  
She stares at the bowl of hot, steaming oatmeal in front of her. After it cools down, she takes a few bites, stirs it with her spoon, and glumly pushes it aside.  
  
"Hey," a voice whispers in her ear. Leo sidles up next to her on the bench, concern in his eyes. Apparently, he'd noticed the depressing air hovering around her. "Is everything-?"  
  
"Okay?" Piper finishes, and gives a somewhat watery laugh. She feels heat rush to her eyes, and blinks the tears back. "It's fine, just- family issues. I can handle it." She tries to laugh again, but fails. It doesn't escape Leo's notice.  
  
"Alright," Leo says. He sounds reluctant to even say it at all. "I'm here if you need anything, okay?" He squeezes her shoulder, firm, but soft, and then he's gone.  
  
  
  
 **< 3**  
  
  
  
Piper's day gets even worse after the events of the morning (and maybe she's being a little selfish by saying that- because she's not the one who's having the worst day, not by a long-shot.)  
  
Sword-fighting with the Ares cabin is their last activity of the day, and it's something Piper's never looked forward to, even taking into consideration the fact that the Aphrodite kids have actually been putting a real effort into fighting ever since she became counselor.  
  
She's pretty certain that the counselor of the Ares cabin hates her. She's never done anything to Clarisse la Rue- never even talked to her directly outside of the counselors' meetings in the Big House, but the daughter of war resents her with a passion.  
  
But from what she's heard from Lacy, Clarisse and the counselor before Drew, Silena Beauregard, were best friends before Silena's death which is probably the reason for Clarisse's deep dislike for her. But maybe, the cause is, as in Drew's words, that she isn't really trying. Piper can barely think about it without getting angry, because what the hell does Drew even know about her, anyways? (Although she can't help wondering if there might be a small truth to it.)  
  
Piper blinks, and what do you know? Lost in thought, she hadn't been paying attention, and it's finally her turn to spar against one of the Ares kids. If she's lucky, it'll be Clarisse, and- yeah. Perfect match.  
  
Piper's even more off her game than usual when she's against Clarisse, and it doesn't take long for the eighteen year-old to absolutely cream her.  
  
"Nice try, McLean," Clarisse says sarcastically with a sneer, her muscular figure blocking out the sunlight shining down on Piper's face. She moves, and once again, Piper is blinded.  
  
She lets out a low groan before pulling herself to her feet and walking over and slumping down beside Lacy. Lacy's green eyes search her, filled with worry, before she asks hesitantly, "Are you okay?"  
  
"You're the second person to ask me today," Piper says, and then, "Yeah. I'm fine."  
  
Lacy doesn't look like she believes her, but she doesn't say anything else, turning her attention back to the arena.  
  
Piper grabs her water bottle and takes a swig, resisting the urge to dump all of it on her face. She lets out a long breath, and lowers her head, switching her focus back to the same place as Lacy.  
  
It's the last spar of the day, and it's Mitchell against some buff guy from the Ares cabin- Mark? Sherman? Bill?- she's not sure, they're nearly all indistinguishable to her, but. Mitchell looks nervous and slightly scared, while the buff son of Ares looks excited, eyes a little too bright. It doesn't take a spectator very long to realize that this fight will not be in the son of Aphrodite's favour.  
  
And it isn't. Mitchell certainly tries, but the son of Ares easily overpowers him, knocking away Mitchell's sword and placing his sword against Mitchell's throat. He sneers, and says something that's out of Piper's hearing range that makes Mitchell turn pale, causing the freckles that splash across his cheeks to become even more visible.  
  
Once they're all dismissed from activities and told by, Clarisse, in exact words, to go "do whatever the Hades they want" (Piper doesn't even manage to get a word in) Mitchell does everything short of sprinting out of the arena.  
  
Lacy stands up, her eyes holding more worry than when she'd looked at Piper. "I'll go after him," she says softly, and quickly leaves as well, following the same direction Mitchell had left in.  
  
Piper stays where she's sitting for a few more moments before getting up. It's her job to look after her younger brother's well being, as she is his older sister and cabin counselor, after all.  
  
Piper finds them back in the Aphrodite cabin. Mitchell is on his bed, his face hidden in his knees, tucked to his chest and arms wrapped around them protectively. Lacy's sitting beside him, looking defeated.  
  
"I tried to get him to talk, but." Lacy sighs, lifting her hands before dropping them into her lap. "No reaction.  
  
Piper hesitates. "Let me try," she says finally, and Lacy shifts over to give her more space on the bed.   
  
The mattress sinks a little as she settles into a comfortable position. Piper leans forward, placing a hand on Mitchell's shoulder gently. "Mitchell," she says, trying to keep her voice soft and even, "Talk-" She feels the charmspeak leaking into her voice, and stops herself. If she's going to do something for her brother, she's going to do it right, without her powers.  
  
She takes a few moments before she speaks again. "It's me, Piper." She lightly coughs to clear her throat before continuing. "Talk to me."  
  
He doesn't react, and Piper softens her voice even more and repeats herself. "Talk to me, please?"  
  
"There was no need to introduce yourself, I could tell it was you," is the first thing Mitchell says, words muffled behind his knees, and he raises his head.  
  
His eyes are a bit wide, and watery. He sniffles, before wiping his nose, and lowering his gaze from her. "Sorry for freaking out, " he mutters. It looks like he's going to hide his face again, so Piper reluctantly asks the question at the tip of her tongue.  
  
"What happened?"  
  
Mitchell flinches at the question, and his arms tighten even more around his knees. "It's dumb."   
  
"Can't be, if you're upset," Lacy says, and she's been so quiet that Piper had forgotten she was even there. "You can tell us. We're your- sisters, and- we're here for you, okay?"  
  
"He just called me a fag." Mitchell says, after a while. "Like I said, it's dumb, but- I don't know, you wouldn't really understand, okay?" His face ducks a little towards his knees, the tips of his brown bangs falling into his eyes. "It's just some stupid insult that he probably didn't think meant anything, teens use it a lot now, but. It _hurt_ , and maybe that's because I'm a son of of Aphrodite and not a daughter, and we don't get to be weak, or to not like fighting, or to even be feminine in the least, because- because that's not what a real man is, right?"  
  
Piper and Lacy don't say anything. Mitchell continues.  
  
"Before camp, back when I went to school, in kindergarten, I used to- play with dolls, 'cause I found them funner than action figures, and when I got older, my only friend was a girl, so- I guess that made me, like, "girly", or something, and. They called me that too, you know? And so what, even if I  _am_ gay, it. It doesn't make it right."  
  
Mitchell's head falls back into his arms, the only things visible being his eyes and hair. "My dad got drunk often," Mitchell says, voice quiet. "Almost every day. I think- I think he missed Mom- I mean, Aphrodite- a lot. Whatever form she took back when she was with him, I must have looked like it, 'cause he always said so. But he- hit me sometimes. Used the same insult. He never was proud of me, always disappointed- I was pretty glad when I found out I was a demigod. It gave me the chance to leave. He died not that long after."   
  
Mitchell glances up at them, eyes angry. "He was such- such an asshole though, I shouldn't even care, but he was still my dad, and. He still mattered to me, and- and-"  Mitchell's voice turned wobbly sometime when he was talking about his dad, and he looks at a loss for words.   
  
Finally, he manages to find something to say. "Dumb, right," and then tears are spilling down Mitchell's cheeks, and Piper pulls him into her arms before he completely breaks, letting him sob into her shoulder, only able to stroke his hair and whisper that it's gonna be okay, and it pisses her off because it's never going to be okay, and she's never been much good when it comes down to it. Mitchell's what, fourteen and. No one should have to go through that, no one, but so many of them have, and. Piper hadn't even noticed how he felt, how the other boys probably felt as well.  
  
Piper's kind of a shit counselor, isn't she?  
  
  
 **< 3**  
  
  
After Mitchell's done crying, he apologizes to her, but she waves it off with "it's no problem" and he and Lacy are gone with small smiles, leaving Piper alone in the cabin.  
  
She slinks over to her bed, collapsing on top of it. Her muscles ache, and she feels so tired, but as much as she'd like to have a nap, it's almost an hour until dinner, so. No point.  
  
The pink walls and ceiling of the cabin don't seem so bright anymore. In fact, they feel downright unwelcoming, like. Like a prison, or something.   
  
She hears the door open, and then there's Drew, in all her glory. At some point in time, she'd ditched the curls for waves, and the brown eyeliner for black. She doesn't use the eye-shadow anymore. Piper will only admit it in her head, but the new style suits Drew. The Japanese girl had always looked good, but she looks even better than before.  
  
"Not moping again, I hope," Drew says, and once again Piper feels irritated. It's the second time that the two of them have been stuck in a room together, alone, and Piper might as well leave right now before she gets angry, but she's feeling stubborn, so she doesn't. Instead, she stays where she is.  
  
Drew looks at her in silence. Piper guesses she can tell something's changed, but Drew's always been good at reading people.  
  
"Finally been knocked off your high horse, huh?" Drew says suddenly, still watching Piper closely.  
  
"I don't want to hear that from  _you_ , of all people," Piper growls from her bed, but. She probably just sounds tired.  
  
Drew perches at the edge, mattress sinking under her weight, just as Mitchell's had earlier. "'I'm not like other girls', right? That's what you thought even before you met us." She snickers. "Like you're special, or something. Better than the rest of us girls. For not caring about your appearance, right? For not caring about how you look?"  
  
Piper doesn't answer, because maybe it's true, and Drew takes her silence as agreement.  
  
"And you're so down to earth yourself. Right," Drew says sarcastically, and a tad bitterly. "You know what? You're probably right, thinking that we're shallow and selfish. But the reason isn't because we like clothes, or makeup, or care about our appearance. So don't think it is. I know you do, McLean."  
  
"It might surprise you, but before coming here, a lot of us were not even half as close as to looking as good as we do now. We were bullied, and insulted, and teased, and- this was finally the chance to change that."  
  
"And it was. But our personalities changed too, to come closer to that weird ideal this cabin has, to whatever we think Aphrodite will accept, and. Well, long story short, we don't want to go to how it was before. No one wants to be a victim."  
  
Drew shrugs. "Doesn't justify what we do, or whatever, but that's the truth." She meets Piper's eyes. "We're all jealous of you," she admits reluctantly. "You're Aphrodite's favourite, and you didn't even do anything, except look pretty from the start. Even with that horrible hair."  
  
Silence falls over them.  
  
Piper knows she's treated her siblings unfairly. They remind her too much of those kids her dad sent her to private school with. Those rich, white, spoiled kids, with their perfect makeup and their perfect, all-american appearance, who looked at her like she was underneath them.  
  
She can still remember her first day. She'd earnestly put on her uniform, the only uniform she had that she ever thought was cute, with it's plaid skirt, shirt and tie, and that sweater vest she'd always insisted on wearing. She'd been so excited, practically gushing on the way to school.  
  
But once she was there? The kids had ignored her, ignored her attempts to talk to them, and giggled among themselves when they thought she wasn't looking. Dirty rumours about her had already spread through the grade by the end of the day.  
  
Piper had sat at her desk, head ducked so her hair blocked her face, and blinked back hot tears until the bell rang. It had taken all she had not to just run out of the classroom.  
  
She knows that the Aphrodite kids aren't like them at all... it's just. Something about the way that they whisper to each other, and giggle, and laugh that's just. Too much of a painful reminder.  
  
"Why are you telling me this?" Piper asks, once she's shaken out of her thoughts. "You don't have to explain them for me."  
  
Drew sighs, and tilts her head to face the ceiling. "You're kind of like Silena."  
  
"Silena?"  
  
A nod. "Yeah. She'd spout the same nonsense you, about what the Aphrodite cabin should really be, with all the love and beauty crap." Drew rolls her eyes, but it's fond, in a way. "Kids believed her, for a while. She was a role model for them, like some kind of celebrity or something."  
  
Piper doesn't say anything for a while. "Is that why you hate her so much?"  
  
Drew smiles, but it's full of malice, and her eyes are cold. "No. For all of Silena's talk about being the  _good_  daughter, the  _good_  son of Aphrodite, she couldn't even live up to it, in the end."  
  
Piper looks at her, eyebrows furrowed. "She couldn't-?"  
  
Drew laughs, stopping her. "You haven't heard the full story, right?" she says, "All you know is the story that everyone else tells, that she did the right thing, that she was a hero."  
  
"Well, Silena? She fell in love with the enemy-" Drew stops. "Actually? That isn't it. She was charmed by him. Luke was handsome, he knew how to talk, and- Silena did whatever he asked. Became his own little personal spy. It cost some lives, in the war, but once her boyfriend died? I guess you could say that she saw the error of her ways. She died trying to fix her mistakes. People see her as some kind of-  _martyr_ , or goddess, but- if you ask me? She was a hypocrite."  
  
Drew lets out another sigh. "Clarisse would punch me if she heard me say that. And you already knew how I thought of Silena. Can't say I'm sorry for wasting your time, though."  
  
"And that's the truth?" Piper says quietly.  
  
"Whole story, Pipes." Drew pats her on the leg. It's condescending. "There's a reason you don't hear people talking about it."  
  
She stands up, and stretches, a small yawn escaping her pink lips. "Then I became counselor, and everything went back to how it should be. But," She turns around to face Piper, eyes narrowed. "I don't want another repeat of Silena."  
  
  
 **< 3**  
  
  
Dinner passes without problems, and so does the campfire. Once they're back in Cabin Ten, the Aphrodite kids mill about and chat, getting ready for bed and using the last few minutes they have left before curfew.  
  
Piper, in the meantime, puts on her pyjamas in record time for a child of Aphrodite and searches for Mariana's bunk. Once her eyes find the chest with the name engraved in it in cursive, Piper takes a breath before approaching, mentally preparing herself.  
  
"Hey," she says, trying to sound bright and cheery. Mariana looks up at her from where she'd been brushing her hair. They hold eye contact for a second before Mariana's eyes dart to her pink sheets. It's almost like she's... scared of her.  
  
The realization makes her heart sag a little, and Piper speaks quietly. "Mind if I sit?" she says, and tucks a stray braid behind her ear.  
  
Mariana nods, and Piper does, trying to do it as lightly as possible. Once she's seated, it takes her a while to find the words she wants to say. "I'm sorry for," she swallows, "Treating you like I did this morning. You didn't deserve that."  
  
Mariana picks at a thread. "It's no biggie. I did deserve it, anyways. You don't have to apologize."  
  
"No, I do," Piper says. "I lost my temper, and I shouldn't have. You didn't deserve it. At all."   
  
Mariana only shrugs, still picking at the thread.  
  
"Why was it- the concealer- so important to you?" Piper says it reluctantly. It feels wrong coming out of her mouth.  
  
The eleven year-old looks up, finally making eye contact. "I only arrived at Camp Half-Blood a few months ago. Before that, I never had- makeup, or concealer, or anything like that."   
  
She pulls her knees to her chest, and stares at the stars on her purple pyjamas. "My classmates used to make fun of me because of my pimples. Used to call me, "the Acne Monster". I didn't have any friends, and I would stay home a lot. The dyslexia and ADHD made it worse, and being-" she points at her skin, and Piper gets it. "You know."  
  
"I was the only kid who wasn't white," the Latina says, and yeah. Piper's been that kid before, a lot of the time. "But eventually, I came here, and... it wasn't like that anymore. I never got a blessing, like you, or anything, though. They helped me," she gestures at the kids in the cabin and smiles. "My brothers and sisters."  
  
Mariana shrugs. "I shouldn't have panicked this morning. I just don't want to be that kid, never again. And this was the first place where I wasn't."  
  
Piper knows Mariana's feelings aren't just shared by the Aphrodite cabin, but the rest of the demigods in the camp, too.  She might not feel it to the same extent, but she does.  
  
"It's okay. And I'm sorry," Piper says, softly. "I haven't been a good big sister, have I?"  
  
"No," Mariana admits, "But you can be."  
  
A silence lingers over them for a few minutes before Mariana reaches over into her chest, and pulls out a black brush.  
  
"Can I," she asks, and wags the brush in the air a bit. "Brush your hair? No offence, but it's giving me a headache just looking at it."  
  
"Yeah, me too," Piper says, grinning, and turns her back to Mariana.  
  
After she takes out the braids, Mariana moves the brush through the tangles in Piper's thick brown hair. Her hand is firm, yet gentle, and Piper sighs and closes her eyes, a warm feeling spreading through her chest.  
  
It's the best she's felt in a while.  
  
  
 **< 3**   
  
  
Piper McLean might not be the best counselor Cabin Ten's ever had, or the best sister, but she's trying.  
  
  
 **< 3**  
  
  
 _la fin_

 

**Author's Note:**

> If you managed to stay and read to the end, thank you! I had a great time writing this fanfiction, which I was struck with in a moment of inspiration. This is also the longest fic I've ever written by a mile, so I'm feeling pretty proud. Thank you again!


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